Rising Popularity of Hip Hop Culture

When I'm walking down the street, its commonplace toWebsites like Myspace have literally millions of artists
hear sub-bass from the latest hip hop hits. Its a genreshowcasing their music, and working to build a fan
that has exploded in popularity year after year.base. Hip Hop has a major place on Myspace, with
In Forbes "Richest Rappers" you see Jay Z, 50 Cent,millions of groups fighting for popularity. Will this music
and P Diddy made a combined total of 94 millionstyle always remain so popular?
dollars in 2007 alone. How long would average peopleOnly the people will determine that. The phrase "Hip
like me and you have to work to simply earn 1 million?Hop is Dead" has been popularized by rapper Nas.
On YouTube, the most viewed videos are naturally hipMany believe he was speaking of how
hop. Videos like "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis havecommercialized the art has become, and not about its
received over 70 million views. Its a reflection not justpopularity.
of hip hops popularity, but of the effects of the internet.One things for certain, If the internet remains open and
It would seem that thanks to the Internet,free like it is now, it would be a hard trend to stop. In
mega-popularity is much easier then ever before. Takethe coming months some of the most popular hip hop
a rising star like Soulja Boy. He became popular first onartists have new albums coming out. 50 Cent, Eminem,
the internet, and only then was he noticed by recordand Dr Dre all have highly anticipated albums coming
executives lookingout in early 2009.